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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Beer Bread Worth Baking

I've used beer to boil my brats, to create a deep fry batter and to make quick bread. The beer brats and onion boil always turned out well and even now, as a vegan, I sometimes still use that mixture to pre-boil my faux meat sausages before finishing them off on the grill. As for deep frying, that has gone by the way since veganism took over my life. I discovered I'd rather eat the veggies fresh or roasted other than deep fried.

Now to get to the beer bread: over the years I've tried recipe after recipe and been disappointed in every single one. The bread didn't rise; it was tough and dense; it lacked moisture and tasted like it was already a week old just out of the oven.

Then one day while I was perusing food blogs, I came upon a recipe labeled "the best beer bread you'll ever eat." Who could resist? I made the necessary changes to convert the bread to vegan and stirred it up. It took all of five minutes. Then I popped it in the oven, hoping for the best.

Wonderful aroma. Great crunchy crust. Soft, mellow, almost fluffy interior. Immensely satisfying mouth feel and great taste. But be warned: this isn't the prettiest loaf of bread you've ever seen. The top bakes up full of crooks and bumps and crevices. But it is, irrefutably, the best beer bread I've ever eaten. Give this recipe a try and tell me what you think.

Now for some basics:

Use a regular metal bread pan that's been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Use any brand of beer you wish. I used the least expensive one I could find and the bread still turned out great. If you have any leftovers (the loaf isn't especially huge), toast it up for breakfast and top it with your favorite jam or jelly. I used strawberry because that's what I had on hand.

BEST BEER BREAD EVER

3 cups white flour

1 Tbs. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. baking powder

2 Tbs. caraway seeds or any other type of seeds you like

12 oz. beer

Put the dry ingredients into a large bowl and give everything a good stir to evenly distribute the flour, etc.

Add the beer and stir. The dough will be wet. That is how it should be. Don't overstir or the bread will be tough.

Spread the batter in the loaf pan, leveling it off the best you can. It will be uneven. That is how it's supposed to be.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. The bread should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.

Turn the bread onto a wire rack to cool. If left in the hot pan, the bread will sweat and you won't be happy with it.

Check the expiration date on your baking powder. That particular ingredient can last for years and years and years. If your can has expired, throw it away and buy a new one. The bread won't raise with old baking powder and neither will anything else you use it in.